Today around 12:05 EST there was a Packages file distributed via macciti/zodttd's source that causes cydia to not launch properly. The issue is well known and a solution is being worked out. Please do not panic/overreact and restore. Again, DO NOT restore your device.

More Information:

The issue was caused by a unicode character used in zodttd's packages file. This character brought out a bug in cydia which caused it to not launch. (a similar problem was created in the past when another community source missed a line break between entries.) This is not the fault of anyone at macciti or zodttd this is simply a bug in cydia.

Fix:
This is a simple fix really.

Connect to your iphone/ipod via either ssh, mobile terminal, ifile, diskaid or some other type of usb file system browser. Browse to /var/lib/apt/lists/

....damn i did the restore hours ago. i have searched and searched the web earlier, nothing (even here....nothing earlier). now im stuck with 3gs blackrain 3.1.2 with cydia not loading. just keeps crashing on reloading data. i hope someone here can post a solution for me.

I searched everything earlier,checked my cydia.log, even a manual Delete and Re-Install of Cydia! To no avail...Then I came to MMI and under Cydia support the answer was found that ZODTTD was the culprit! Wish I found it sooner tho

Ok I've done all that, but I do not see an update for Cydia. Am I doing something wrong? How am I supposed to see an update if there are no repos? When I add the Hackulo repo, cydia automatically adds about 4 seperate repos. xsellize and a few others I had installed. None of those contain any updates. Ran the Apt-get update command, and I got a permissions denied message. I dont have SSH here at work so I can't do that, just iPhonebrowser. Anyone else in this same predicament??

I just got a new phone today, and used custom TMO firmware, with Cydia, and didnt get a chance to install any apps, How do I go about doing this; if I recall correctly, you need a program from Cydia in order to SSH or am I thinking of something else?

The Following User Says Thank You to rhekt For This Useful Post:

Can someone walk me through how to do this is mobile terminal? I have tried "rm" cydia.zodttd-1.com_repo_cydia_dists_stable_main_binary-iphoneos-arm_Packages but is says the file doesn't exist. However cydia crashes on startup so I know I'm infected. Any help would be appreciated.

..... Ran the Apt-get update command, and I got a permissions denied message. I dont have SSH here at work so I can't do that, just iPhonebrowser. Anyone else in this same predicament??

you need to enter your root password first. type in su...enter your password. then enter the command apt-get update.....this will run itself. wait till it fully finishes. killall Terminal....and your done. when you enter into cydia, you wont see an update because this command takes care of that....by the way you must have apt7 installed for this..

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to rhekt For This Useful Post:

I bought my first iphone 3 months after it came out, 2 years later i bought my iphone 3gs skipping the iphone 3g, since then i have been jailbreaking, modding enabling tethering etc etc etc...

I have tried a lot, not everything but alot, installer, cydia, icy and rockapp. I can tell you that the one that has given me the most problems has been cydia, and when i say most they are actually not a lot of problems but some anoying ones and after this issue i finally switched to rock app. Adding all my sources was the only thing keeping me from switching to rock app but after trying to fix this and not seeing this post earlier today i finally made the switch and I think i wont be needing cydia anymore.

Make the switch, rockapp is the future, has more options, its 3 to 4 times faster than cydia on everytihng and the look are amazing, very organized and everything, cydia was a great, but rockapp is better =P

Can someone walk me through how to do this is mobile terminal? I have tried "rm" cydia.zodttd-1.com_repo_cydia_dists_stable_main_binary-iphoneos-arm_Packages but is says the file doesn't exist. However cydia crashes on startup so I know I'm infected. Any help would be appreciated.

Just see this video to fix it:[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TelTlU7WsX4]YouTube - How To Fix Cydia Crash 28th December 2009[/ame]